At first glance, I thought these graphics by the Capital News Service (posted in Potomac Local) of Virginia “legislative batting averages” could be helpful. But the more I looked, the more I realized…well, not so much. For instance, check out the following problems.

*Capital News Service/Potomac Local claims that Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax) put in 14 bills and passed none, for a 0.000 “legislative batting average.” In fact, according to the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS), Bulova DID put in 14 bills, but as far as I can determine, 7 of those passed, many by an almost unanimous vote. Why? Because, in part, many of these bills were totally non-controversial (e.g., “HB 1552 Career and technical education; notification by school board to students and parents of programs”; “HB 1675 Palliative care information and resources; VDH to make information available on its website”). But again, the glaring error here is that Bulova actually batted .500 (7 for 14), not .000 (0 for 14) as Capital News Service (and as posted by Potomac Local, which apparently didn’t check these numbers) claims. #FAIL

*Also jumping out at me was something glaringly obvious to anyone who follows Virginia politics at all, namely that the highest legislative “batting averages” were overwhelmingly Republicans. For instance, 12 of the top 15 State Senators were Republicans, plus one “Democrat” who might as well be a Republican in some ways – Dick Saslaw. There were, it basically goes without saying, some really nasty bills in there by right-wingnut Republicans, such as this voter suppression crap by crazy ol’ Mark Obenshain, but also a bunch of non-controversial stuff which passed unanimously (e.g., Ben Chafin‘s “SB 1179 Opioids; workgroup to establish guidelines for prescribing”).

I was chatting with some Democratic delegates and staffers about this “batting average” thing, and their comments were basically scathing. One delegate said, point blank, that the rankings were “crap,” “silly and also wrong.” This person noted that bills get “stolen” all the time by Republicans, who then get credit for passing them. Another example: one progressive Democratic delegate “had a non-controversial bill killed because he made a floor speech calling them out for avoiding a vote on redistricting reform. That afternoon, the bill died.” This person also argued that Democratic delegates often get punished by Republican “leadership” (using the word loosely) if they: a) raise a lot of money; b) speak up a lot; c) put forth “controversial” (aka, progressive or pro-environment stuff that Republicans don’t like). A Democratic staffer confirmed this pattern as “definitely true,” both for bills passed and also for committee assignments. And a member added, “the Dems who do best are the ones who speak out least and cause the fewest problems for Republicans.”

Finally, one Democratic member told me that a ” problem with that graphic is it suggests Dems should play small ball and only propose safe bill,” that “I could ‘bat 1000’ too if I renamed community centers and put forward legislation to allow localities to designate a wine as special.” In contrast, “when I propose a bill I know that will fail — like paid family medical leave or no discrimination against the LGBT community — I lose points.” Nor does this graphic recognize “playing defense,” whether helping to kill a bad bill or at least make it less egregious. In sum, this member argues, “it’s really a stupid chart.”

So…serious errors, plus conceptually flawed=”swing and a miss” for Capital News Service/Potomac Local. Having said that, I do give them credit for at least trying to do what journalists are supposed to do, which is to inform the public as to what their elected officials are up to. Unfortunately, in this case, that well-intentioned attempt went seriously astray…

nailed a ton of key points that are often overlooked.
– how bad the media coverage of legislature is, even when they try.
– how crappy these kind of metrics are
– how many good bills die and how they die.
– how petulant the republican leadership is.
– how many good legislative initiatives are being pushed by local reps….